The idealistic Senator Bail Organa represented the ancient Core World of Alderaan in the last years of the Republic. When the Separatist Crisis exploded into the Clone Wars, Organa became a leading member of the Senate’s Loyalist faction, though he was uneasy about the accumulation of wartime powers by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

Organa sought to balance his humanitarian instincts with his support for the war by aiding relief efforts and helping refugees. He also hunted for a peaceful solution to the conflict and sought to limit the Supreme Chancellor’s powers. Such efforts made him an ally of like-minded Senators such as Chandrila’s Ahsoka and Naboo’s Padmé Amidala. 

Organa also worked with the Jedi Order, forging close working relationships with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. When word spread on Coruscant that clone troopers had put down a Jedi rebellion, Organa went to the Jedi Temple to see for himself, but had to retreat.

Organa witnessed Palpatine’s Declaration of Empire with horror, and began working in secret with Mon Mothma to create a network of resistance cells opposed to the Empire. He and his wife Breha adopted Leia, the orphaned infant daughter of Padmé and Anakin Skywalker, and raised the girl as their own. 

Parenting was not easy, and when Leia was 10 years old the Organas endured the terror of losing their child when she was kidnapped by mercenaries secretly working for the Inqusitorius. Bail turned to his old friend, the Jedi now living under the alias Ben Kenobi, who rescued the young princess and saw her safely returned to her home.

As the Empire tightened its grip on the galaxy, Organa began quietly aiding rebel cells in the galaxy and identifying those who might help the cause of freedom. He groomed his adopted daughter Leia to take his place in both the Imperial Senate and the secret Rebellion.

In the end, Organa’s outward loyalty to the Empire couldn’t save him. The Empire disbanded the Senate and intercepted Leia trying to bring the stolen Death Star plans to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine. To demonstrate the terrifying power of the battle station, Grand Moff Tarkin turned its superlaser on Alderaan, incinerating the planet and its inhabitants.